despatched by the commonwealth, met him on the march, announcing that the Tyrians had decided to do whatever he might command.[1] He commended both the city and its ambassadors, and ordered them to return and tell the Tyrians that he wished to enter their city and offer sacrifice to Heracles. The son of the king of the Tyrians was one of the ambassadors, and the others were conspicuous men in Tyre; but the king Azemilcus[2] himself was sailing with Autophradates.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Worship of Hercules in Tyre.—The Tyrians Refuse to Admit Alexander.
The reason of this demand was, that in Tyre there existed a temple of Heracles,[3] the most ancient of all those which are mentioned in history. It was not dedicated to the Argive Heracles, the son of Alcmena; for this Heracles was honoured in Tyre many generations before Cadmus set out from Phoenicia and occupied Thebes, and before Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, was born, from whom Dionysus, the son of Zeus, was born. This Dionysus
- ↑ Curtius (iv. 7) tells us that the envoys also brought to Alexander a golden wreath, together with abundant supplies for his army.
- ↑ This king must have brought home his ships for the defence of Tyre, for he was in the city when it was captured. See chap. 24.
- ↑ The Phoenician god Melkarth (lord of the city), whom the Syrians called Baal (lord), was supposed to be identical with the Grecian Heracles, or Hercules, who was the mythical ancestor of the Macedonian kings. Curtius (iv. 7) tells us that Alexander affirmed he had been ordered by an oracle to sacrifice in Tyre to Heracles. Gesenius informs us that a Maltese inscription identifies the Tyrian Melkarth with Heracles.
the name is corrupted into Tyrus, and sometimes into Sarra. Tyre was unsuccessfully besieged for five years by Shalmaneser. It was also besieged for thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar, and in the end an alliance was formed, by which the Tyrians retained their own king as a vassal of the king of Babylon. This arrangement was continued under the kings of Persia.
